Hi there, thanks for taking a few moments to look over this rather ... sparse opening post.

This thread is mostly to see if I can find people with an interest in writing about a race of aliens I created for a very specific RP, that is coming gradually to a close.

The Mrinka are a feline race, they have tails and fur, but they are as technologically advanced as humans.

First contact between the two races came in the Human year 2291, when a human scout ship dropped out of jump into a star system in which a rather large and very alien space craft was already sitting. Attempts at opening communication failed and when the alien ship attempted to board the human ship by force, the humans naturally fought back...

Thus began the Mrinka/Human war. The war lasted for over fifty years and cost untold lives on both sides, sweeping in other less well prepared alien races as well. Eventually a peace was settled upon, that both sides regarded as unfair/dishonourable/Hnahagrrrh, but it was the only solution possible. Joint S&R expeditions were sent to the sites of all recorded engagements to search for survivors and their descendants. Joint colonies were established, cultural exchange programs and education programs were created. Technology was shared, and both sides were surprised by how little difference there was.

And the two equally warlike races learned to live in peace together.

For reference:

Interstellar Enemies - The story for which the Mrinka were created. Please be aware that the race, language and culture have developed and evolved as the story has progressed, and be patient with any inconsistencies.

The Mrinka Elluiki Page - This contains a detailed summary of just about everything that is known abut the Mrinka. It is not necessary to learn it all by heart, but a quick glance at the more relevant parts might be an idea... Again it is somethingof a "work-in-progress" in so far as it is not set in stone. I would, however, request that people not change anything, at least without asking me first. A lot of work went into that page.

An important point about Mrinka sexuality:

Mrinka have three genders: Male, Premale and Female. Males have the usual male equipment. Premales have a single ovary, no womb, an invertible vagina, and are flat chested. They tend to be the Mrinka equivalent of androgynous in facial appearance. Females have a short fixed vagina leading to a womb, but have no ovaries. They do have breasts. Reproduction involves a male having sex with a premale to fertilise her and the premale then having sex with the female to impregnate her.

Mrinka are pretty open and forward about sex, and the only real taboo left in their society is for a male and female to have intercourse, outside the context of a stable three-way marriage. However with the arrival on the scene of human couples with their strange lack of the middle gender, even this is becoming less frowned upon. Other relationships between the three genders are generally accepted in whatever combination one likes, although the "norm" is still taken to be a three-way with one of each.

Mrinka tails are incredibly sensitive and to touch the tail is generally considered to be foreplay.

Okay, so what am I after here?

Great, we have this fantastic race of aliens who have been well thought out, complete with a language, culture, technology and a world of their own... So what do I do with them?

That's the problem. I don't know. I'm desperately looking for an idea that will utilise this species, in a group game that will be fun, exciting, stimulating, and possibly even smutty!

I have a couple of possibles. One idea, that of a human POW camp on a Mrinka world, flopped because I didn't get enough (any?) Mrinka players... I have another idea that might do better - a college campus on a joint Human/Mrinka colony world. It has the "Lowest Common Denominator" element while being an environment people can still relate to. But I honestly don't know if it will fly.

So, here's what I would like:

Please read the source material in the Wiki (you don't have to read the story Becky and I are writing), and then let me know YOUR ideas for possible settings and plots, involving the Mrinka. Ideas can include humans, or even other races. Please post ideas in this thread.

I will then consider them, I may combine them or take elements from them. I may reject them altogether if I consider them to be inappropriate, unworkable, or out of context.

I will then post whatever I come up with... And hopefully at the end of the day we will have a workable setting and scenario...

I just want to see what happens when I scritch them behind the ears....and roll a ball of brightly colored yarn their way.

Heh... If you happen to be very friendly with a Mrinka, then scritching behind the ears is definitely a sign of intimacy... Balls of yarn might well be taken as an insult... The processes of "parallel evolution" have produced on Kraahh an animal called a glurra that is about the size of a dog, looks a lot like a baby human and is kept as a pet...!

Wars are things easily started and not so easily ended, do remember this!

Hmm... A joint colonisation effort on an apparently uninhabited planet or new space station or a spaceship incorporating both races at all ranks might be interesting and relatively easy scenarios to set up and run. They could also be taken in a whole range of different directions. Just a thought.

The ball of yarn, rolled in front of an adult Mrinka, would have the same effect as an inflated pig bladder rolled in front of an adult human. The same instinct would come into play in both species: the desire to play and chase. The Mrinka's reaction, just like the human's reaction, would depend entirely upon the circumstances.

Wish I had known about the POW camp idea. The notion of a premale doctor or scientist assigned to study the captive humans comes to mind, not one who is sadistic or cruel but who is focused while also being curious. ("Look, their generic background shows that they could have once had tails, or at least the creatures they evolved from did. So why not see if we can somehow get some of these humans to grow tails now? It'd be a service to them, really. I mean, could you imagine living life without a tail?! They don't know what they're missing! And if we can get them to grow tails, maybe we can find a way to give them a third sex. Only two sexes? No wonder they have population control and resource management problems!") My own fault there for not snooping around the threads enough.

College? A bit overdone. But I do like skyre's idea of a shared colony! Not so much a space station, but if settled on a world not fully explored, it gives plenty of room for adventures and plotlines. Especially if the colony doesn't have interstellar capabilities itself and is stuck relying on either or both homeworlds for off-world transportation and imported materials. (You know, things like... yarn.) This essentially traps the colonists on the world. You could end up with "illegal" separatist groups that then cause troubles for the main colony.

Has there been any thoughts on what other species the Mrinka have conquered? Not that I would look to play one or encourage anyone else in that; more than Humans and Mrinka would make things needlessly complicated, I think. I was just wondering.

The thing that pisses the Mrinka off most about the peace treaty is the "emancipation" of the slave races and the abolition of slavery.

See, from the Mrinka's point of view, these were primitive races who's existence they have improved no end, bringing them the concept of Hnahag, bringing them space travel, bringing them technology... The Mrinka have done these various races a favour... There are about half a dozen main slave races, plus two or three where the last few survivors are kept in captivity and bred as animals because they would not accept that the Mrinka were stronger and thus had to subjugate them. The main slave races have been allowed to keep their worlds, with Mrinka overseers and military. Depending upon the sophistication of the race and how easily they "came into the fold" - how Hnahag they already were - the civilian police and local government may also be in the hands of the slave race.

Those races that refused to submit have had their worlds fully colonised by the Mrinka.

Since the war, and with the signing of the treaty, the Mrinka have been forced to repatriate all slaves back to their home-world, except in cases where the slave refused to return. The sentient creatures kept as animals are an exception, because they have no world to go to and there are only a few of them left.

............ Uh.... You do know I'm making this up as I go, right?

I'll give it some more thought and put a section in the wiki... Probably a couple of sections, because I need to detail the effects of the peace treaty on the Mrinka, and on humanity.

... One of the main concessions made by the human side was to ban all hunting of any animal not used for food, to increase the use of animal based products such as bone, leather, sinew, so that the animals used for meat could also be used in other ways... Probably the least popular concession made by the human side was The Universal Declaration of Atheism, balanced by The Universal Declaration of Emancipation on theMrinka side. Humans ceased to acknowledge a higher power, and Mrinka ceased to claim to be that higher power...!

Seems fair, right? Yeah, try enforcing either...!

Anyway, this is all great for the back-drop, but if we don't start discussing plot ideas and settings I'm going to have to ask for the thread to be moved to World Building...!

A shared colony world is a good idea.... Except it gives too much scope without giving enough scope... I will try and phrase that a bit better....

An entire world. Do you have any idea how BIG that is? The Earth's moon has a surface area of 38 million square kilometres. That's a square kilometre for everyone in California over the age of 3... Sadly there's no air on the moon... But that's a lot. And that's the moon....!

The surface area of Mars? 144.8 million kmē. Earth? 510 million kmē. Okay so only 148.3 million kmē of that is land, but still...

And one of my pet hates is the "monoculture world" so prevalent in Science Fiction. That's lazy! Dune is an exception - there is a reason why Arakis is a desert. But Tatooine? Nah. Lazy. No with that much life on the world... A world where the surface is just one giant forest? Nope. The surface covered in ocean? Possible, but unlikely. The entire planet covered in ice? Well yeah, dur, there's at least two I know of in our solar system... but they won't support humanoid life.

The fact I find most fascinating is that to film all the star wars worlds, Lucas (and now Disney) just went to various locations on this one... And this makes me cringe when I see other writers following the "Lucas" path of monoculture planets. If this planet has such a wide and varied range of landscapes and environments, why shouldn't other worlds?

So, ... ur.... Yeah, sorry got carried away there for a moment.

So, the planet will have a vast area to explore, a wide range of environments and a plethora of native species... Plants, animals, and possibly other things that are neither....

This gives MASSIVE scope for a sandbox.

Yeah, except I have had very bad experiences with sandbox rp.... I have found that the biggest issue is that people must make their own stories. People don't want to make their own stories. People want to have a story that they can follow (when it suits them) but one they can ignore and go off in their own direction if they feel so inclined...

That said, possibly my most successful group game to date was Mars Colony... It got half way to big game status before it died... And the biggest problem with it was that it was a closed environment. I've learned from that, and no longer put sandbox RPs in a closed environment.

So... massive scope for sandbox, and can be kept as an open environment with people appearing and disappearing all the time...

But very limited scope for GM direction.... Sure I can bring in the occasional "disaster", the occasional "event", but in my experience these never actually get to happen, because the game lasts one day of game time, and for everything to happen in one day is .... yeah....

Moving the game forwards, that's the thing.... Easy to do in a Maguffin hunt or other GM-led plot, but in a sandbox? Everyone has finished their scenes except for five players, one couple and one three-way, and they are still going at it. Everyone else is waiting for them to finish, and everyone else is getting bored, finding other games that are more active...

The GM has three options: 1) Wait for the on-going scenes to finish and try and chivvy them along a bit. In this case she just has to hope that there will still be players left when she finally gets to do the time-skip. 2) Do the time-skip anyway, and risk up[setting those players who hadn't finished their scenes - this can be ameliorated by providing an "unfinished scene" thread, but personally I've never seen that work! 3) use flexible time. This has the advantage that player characters can be in multiple scenes at once, means that there is no need for the GM to move time forward for everyone at once. Unfortunately it has the disadvantage that players MUST keep track of when and where their characters are in order to avoid continuity errors... The GM can help of course, but it means players are responsible for updating the "where" and "when" sections of the post header...

My one final issue is the start point. I have a pathological aversion to "arrival" scenes. People who like them tend to drop out after them, and people who don't like them don't post in them. So the game has to start with everyone already there. This means that characters have to have already met and possibly established relationships. But where (or perhaps, when) to start? I started Mars Colony with the mission commander setting foot on Mars. That worked because I had a history set up where the Mars Base was already there, just mothballed. This won't work here. If we have them arriving they are going to have to set up their homes, build the space port, create farms, build workshops, stake claims, establish mines....

IF that is the sort of activity you want in a game, then great, I have no objection to any of it... I'd love to GM a game like that...

On the other hand, if you don't want that sort of game, then you need to tell me what sort of activities you DO want.... Because that is what I mean by the idea having limited scope. There is the "setting up the colony" scenario, but other than that we are into "The every day boring bits of living on a frontier world" scenario, which doesn't seem particularly exciting to me...

So, here's my proposal so far...

A joint colony venture with Mrinka and Human colonists, having literally just arrived on a new frontier world. They will need to work hard. Build homes first, then the space port. The JCA officials will need to establish a claims and homesteads procedure. There will be incidents involving native wildlife, possibly native plant-life.

Players will be limited initially to two characters, with no initial restrictions on player gender, but I would prefer no human "futa".

Usually where the best ideas come from. And it's sounding good! I especially like the part of The Universal Declaration of Atheism and The Universal Declaration of Emancipation being concessions; even more, I like the idea that actually enforcing either edict is problematic. And, again, it was just my own curiosity... although it might make for some interesting plot points later.

Quote

A shared colony world is a good idea.... Except it gives too much scope without giving enough scope...

Hmm, I can see your point about being too large, allowing for too many possibilities and making any one plot thread all the harder to follow/resolve. And, no, you're right, single-environment/climate planets are ridiculous! While it's been a rather long time since I read any of the books, I'm fairly certain that the Dune series mentions the polar caps were colder than the rest of the word, even if just as sandy/rocky.

One thing that might work is to limit the number of "habitable" zones on the planet. Radiation, hostile fauna/flora, difficult terrain, seismic activity, a narrow temperate zone along the equator... If it is a truly environmentally and geographically varied world, then it might be possible for certain areas of the planet to be simply too inhospitable. Just a thought.

Quote

Yeah, except I have had very bad experiences with sandbox rp.... I have found that the biggest issue is that people must make their own stories. People don't want to make their own stories. People want to have a story that they can follow (when it suits them) but one they can ignore and go off in their own direction if they feel so inclined...

...

Sure I can bring in the occasional "disaster", the occasional "event", but in my experience these never actually get to happen, because the game lasts one day of game time, and for everything to happen in one day is .... yeah....

Moving the game forwards, that's the thing.... Easy to do in a Maguffin hunt or other GM-led plot, but in a sandbox? Everyone has finished their scenes except for five players, one couple and one three-way, and they are still going at it. Everyone else is waiting for them to finish, and everyone else is getting bored, finding other games that are more active...

Oh, look! You just named almost every reason why I usually avoid group RPs! *grins*

But on to your proposal!

Quote

A joint colony venture with Mrinka and Human colonists, having literally just arrived on a new frontier world. They will need to work hard. Build homes first, then the space port. The JCA officials will need to establish a claims and homesteads procedure. There will be incidents involving native wildlife, possibly native plant-life.

Players will be limited initially to two characters, with no initial restrictions on player gender, but I would prefer no human "futa".

Not big on arrival posts either, but I can see starting story just post-arrival. The colonists are still setting up, some if not most of the characters already know each other to some degree, and there is the general organization chaos still going on. Some characters might have been "on site" for a while getting everything ready while others are incoming colonists.

Cats and glurra are not supposed to be allowed on the colony as it's known their presence will upset the other race. Someone, of course, smuggles one in anyway. Hilarity ensues.

Other thoughts? What would be the purpose of the colony? A simple cultural exchange seems a bit much for either race to finance a colony, so what does the world have that both Human and Mrinka want? Is it a place to send dissidents or penal convicts? Is there an abundant resource that both races require? Is it a nexus or does it have some scientific value? A specific joint goal might mean more focus on the main story while also giving both sides something to work together for.

I'll throw my hat into the ring to play a colony administrator of some sort, human or Mrinka, whichever is needed more to balance things out. I have ideas in either direction. (My less-than-ethical by human standards premale is still hovering in the back of my mind, too.)

((PS - I'll make my apologies now. When I really like a premise pre-launch of a story, I brainstorm a lot and toss out lots of ideas, responding fairly quickly to general posts. If I become bothersome, a word to the wise is sufficient and appreciated!))

((PS - I'll make my apologies now. When I really like a premise pre-launch of a story, I brainstorm a lot and toss out lots of ideas, responding fairly quickly to general posts. If I become bothersome, a word to the wise is sufficient and appreciated!))

No sweat. The whole point of this thread is because I really really really want to run another game using the Mrinka, and I have no idea what sort of game to run. So far Skyre and yourself have provided useful inspiration. I love the whole idea of thrashing this out in a public forum with anyone able to contribute, with ideas being batted back and forth like a ... *giggles* ... ball of yarn between a kitten's paws. The more input I get, the more feedback, the better.

Please continue as you are doing. And equally, please feel free to shoot me down if something doesn't work for you, if something doesn't sit right. I'm human and I make mistakes too!

Hmm, I can see your point about being too large, allowing for too many possibilities and making any one plot thread all the harder to follow/resolve. And, no, you're right, single-environment/climate planets are ridiculous! While it's been a rather long time since I read any of the books, I'm fairly certain that the Dune series mentions the polar caps were colder than the rest of the word, even if just as sandy/rocky.

One thing that might work is to limit the number of "habitable" zones on the planet. Radiation, hostile fauna/flora, difficult terrain, seismic activity, a narrow temperate zone along the equator... If it is a truly environmentally and geographically varied world, then it might be possible for certain areas of the planet to be simply too inhospitable. Just a thought.

Dune has the entire southern hemisphere marked as "uninhabitable", but in reality the Fremen have vast palm plantations in the south. The north pole has a small ice cap. The reason Dune is a desert is not due to climate, it is due to the sandworms, which die if there is too much moisture. The "Little Maker" vector of the sandworm - the larval stage, is a hydrophilic life form and actively seeks out water, trapping it, sealing it away from Shai Hulud. Then when the little makers have absorbed enough water, they "evolve", release a "pre-spice mass" and become small baby sand worms. The pre-spice mass ferments and bubbles to the surface, becoming a spice patch that attracts an adult worm... Something like that, anyway. Frank Herbert was never absolutely clear on the process...!

The colony will be in one place on one continent. Colonists will, of course, spread out to various claims across the continent, allowing them to explore different terrain and climate areas, and they may even be allowed to venture onto other islands and continents if they so desire.

Not big on arrival posts either, but I can see starting story just post-arrival. The colonists are still setting up, some if not most of the characters already know each other to some degree, and there is the general organization chaos still going on. Some characters might have been "on site" for a while getting everything ready while others are incoming colonists.

Pretty much what I had in mind... I'm thinking an initial colonisation list of 1,000 people split more-or-less evenly between the two species. That gives plenty of scope for player characters and NPCs, while not limiting the number of players. If it turns out we need more, heck, we can have a second wave of colonists... With 500 humans and 500 mrinka in the colony, it also allows people to just disappear into the background.

Quote

Cats and glurra are not supposed to be allowed on the colony as it's known their presence will upset the other race. Someone, of course, smuggles one in anyway. Hilarity ensues.

Haha. The only thing is, both are working animals. Glurra can be used to herd fvirr and cats are useful in controlling pests such as mice and rats. Besides, both species are going to have to live with each other they are going to hsave to live with each other's pets. And humans don't take offence at Chimps, nor do Mrinka at their own Primfelinate ancestors... But I would definitely like to see some IC friction over some "Kitty" or "Glulu" remarks

Oh and of course the use of the word "Druub" is banned, but so is "Furby"!

Quote

Other thoughts? What would be the purpose of the colony? A simple cultural exchange seems a bit much for either race to finance a colony, so what does the world have that both Human and Mrinka want? Is it a place to send dissidents or penal convicts? Is there an abundant resource that both races require? Is it a nexus or does it have some scientific value? A specific joint goal might mean more focus on the main story while also giving both sides something to work together for.

I'm thinking some sort of unobtanium, a mineral that is quite rare in the universe and therefore valuable. This opens up all sorts of story-arcs, provided the game lasts long enough to get to them!

Quote

I'll throw my hat into the ring to play a colony administrator of some sort, human or Mrinka, whichever is needed more to balance things out. I have ideas in either direction. (My less-than-ethical by human standards premale is still hovering in the back of my mind, too.)

I'll be allowing two characters per player, to start with. That may change if the game needs it, but that is my initial limit. This is to prevent any one player taking over every scene in the game and then blackmailing the GM(s) into changing the game, or dropping out and killing it. (Seen it happen!)

So, I will be creating the Mrinka colony administrator, but do feel free to be the human administrator and your premale mrinka.

I'm not averse to offering an assistant GM role to someone who is this enthusiastic for the idea, if you want it?

*Laughing at myself* Reminder: re-read Dune. It's only been 30 years, I guess?

Two-character limit is perfect. Never seen folks try to hijack a RP story before by flooding it with characters, but I believe it. Besides which, the fewer characters each person has, the better everyone can concentrate on what's going on without using "player knowledge." (Which... is something I remember being a hassle in tabletop gaming.)

Co-GMing? Tempting, although I would be concerned about how much time I dedicate to a new venture. It wouldn't be fair to you or the players if I commit and then realize that I don't have time. Can we see how much interest is generated first? In the meantime, I'll still be glad to brainstorm and toss ideas around! Because, I'll be honest, I would really like to see this setting go somewhere. Don't know why, it just appeals to me for some reason.

Two-character limit is perfect. Never seen folks try to hijack a RP story before by flooding it with characters, but I believe it. Besides which, the fewer characters each person has, the better everyone can concentrate on what's going on without using "player knowledge." (Which... is something I remember being a hassle in tabletop gaming.)

I've seen it twice. The culprit is no-longer welcome in my group games, for a variety of reasons, not just that one. But limiting the number of characters a player can have is an easy way of preventing such a take-over.

You mean Meta-gaming? That is something that can be a problem, even with one character per player, because everyone reads all the posts in all the game threads, so if two players are having a secret discussion, all the other players know about it...

Quote

Co-GMing? Tempting, although I would be concerned about how much time I dedicate to a new venture. It wouldn't be fair to you or the players if I commit and then realize that I don't have time. Can we see how much interest is generated first? In the meantime, I'll still be glad to brainstorm and toss ideas around! Because, I'll be honest, I would really like to see this setting go somewhere. Don't know why, it just appeals to me for some reason.

You don't have to co-GM. But I would rather someone who was really enthusiastic for the idea took the co-GM spot, even if they didn't have much time to dedicate to the role, than give it to someone who just wanted to be Co-GM for the sake of it,or who wasn't really interested in the idea.

I should probably point out that if you did create the other colony admin character, that would automatically get you a co-GM spot, regardless, because your character would have equal powers to mine!